Disabled man injured in seizure disputes Fort Collins police ticket

Aug. 7, 2013

Steven Hodges, right, was ticketed for interference with Fort Collins police after refusing orders while disoriented from a medical seizure. The mentally disabled man said he is not guilty. / Dan Belknap/The Coloradoan

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Bulging scar tissue marks the right side of Steven Hodges’ forehead, a place vulnerable to bumps when he collapses into disorienting seizures.

It was still taped from a previous injury last May, when the mentally disabled man was walking to a store near his Fort Collins home to get quarters for laundry. Another seizure hit, and he banged his forehead on the sidewalk.

Firefighters and medics were called. Then police. Hodges, 55, did not cooperate.

“Hodges became very aggressive with staff and at one point ran away from them,” according to the July 8 report from Fort Collins Police Officer William Biberos.

Blood dripped from a large cut on the forehead, but paramedics didn’t have a reason to force Hodges to go to the hospital, according to the report. Protocol required that they have him sign refusal forms before they could leave. As police talked with medics, Hodges voluntarily came back to the scene.

Hodges was asked if he had weapons and said he had a pocketknife. But he refused a pat-down, struggled against officers, was taken to the ground and ended up connected to a gurney by four-point soft restraints. He was taken to Poudre Valley Hospital and received a municipal police citation for “interference with public officers.”

This upsets Hodges and his parents, who said he’s extremely disabled. Hodges has a hard time describing what happened. He speaks slowly, and when asked how he felt he was treated during the incident, he replied, “bad.”

Hodges doesn’t drive. He can’t ride a bicycle. He works as a cleaning person at Foothills Gateway, a place that helps people with cognitive disabilities. And he’s had the same job since he was 19, said his mother, Verda Hodges.

His father, Dwayne Hodges, said Steve was 9 years old when he suffered a brain injury. He hit his head in a fall while washing at a sink. The injury created a blood clot that traveled along the left side of his brain, leaving damage along the way, Dwayne said.

After refusing a pat-down during the May 17 afternoon encounter at Lemay Avenue and Pitkin Street, Hodges “continued attempting to fix a pair of sunglasses, which he had, which appeared to have been damaged during his initial fall,” according to the report.

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Police say he refused to obey orders and was twice seen reaching into the pocket where his knife was said to be. Then he started walking from the scene while reaching into the same pocket. Police grabbed him, he struggled, and they took him down and put him in handcuffs, according to the report.

But Troy Krenning, Hodges’ attorney and a former police officer, disputes that he was reaching into his pocket. He said Hodges was just trying to pick up his sunglasses when he was taken down.

“They made a mistake,” Krenning said. “Probably an understandable mistake, but now they need to fix it.”

The police report, which Krenning provided to the Coloradoan, does not mention a seizure or Hodges’ mental disability.

Hodges was in court this week on the charge, and a trial was set tentatively for Oct. 1. Krenning said that if the case isn’t dismissed, it will go to trial. He said his client turned down a plea agreement that would’ve given him a one-year deferred sentence if he admitted guilt and agreed to be supervised.

Steve Hodges doesn’t have any criminal history, according to state court records.

The family said it doesn’t intend to file a complaint against the police or pursue any civil action. Dwayne said they’re simply concerned for other disabled people and believe that standing up against the charge could someday help someone else.